Women, however, are controlled by more than physical violence and lack of female soli darity. Women are socialized into roles and behaviour which work to keep women politically weak and allow men to maintain their dominance over them. I believe that this material can be examined in light of Mill's statement quoted earlier. Women and men in Walbiri society consider the mother as primarily responsible for her children. This strong tie between mother and children is not only due to the fact that women are the main providers of food and care for children. The Walbiri also believe that there is a physiological and spiritual link between them. This spiritual link is due to beliefs about the roles of two kinds of spirits, the conception dreaming spirit and the matrispirit in foetus creation. The former spirit enters the woman's womb, the latter is automatically transferred while the woman is carrying the foetus.6 These two spirits make the child is some way part of the woman and part of the ancestors of her matrilineage. That so, the link between mother and child is deeper than just the spiritual and affective ties between them. Walbiri also believe that women are best fitted for rearing children. However, if the child is over five or six years old the husband can dispute a woman's rights to the children. Public opinion will support the man's case. It is believed that a man should have the right and enjoyment of assisting his son in the circumcision ritual and guiding him through his ritual education. If the child is female, he should retain his rights to her so he may fulfill any ceremonial obligations he may have given to bestow her in marriage (Meggitt 1974:100).
Women feel that they have primary responsibility for their children and that they may lose them if they leave their husbands w ithout the assistance of their kin to back them up. These two things act as a profound obstacle against women with children who wish to elope with another man or leave their husband against their kinsmen's wishes. A woman, it is thought, should be sensible about her children's welfare. Therefore, if she wishes to leave her husband, she will leave the children behind. There are two additional reasons for this decision. Firstly, the journey is likely to be an arduous one. She and the man she is eloping with must move quickly to keep ahead of her husband or betrothed and her kinsmen. If children were brought along, their pace would be slowed and greatly increase the possibility of getting caught. Secondly, if a woman leaves her children behind and her husband has several wives to take care of them, he may not pursue her so assidiously. The husband may decide that the woman is not really
6. There is a third spirit in the child, the patrispirit. However, the patrispirit is more active in men; it contributed to their personalities. Women also have a patrispirit; however, its involvement with their personality is negligible. This, for the Walbiri, explains why women behave differently from men. It also provides an explanation as to why women are represen ted in men's ritual, but cannot take an active part (Meggitt 1974:210). The implication of this belief will be discussed later in the chapter on ritual, myth and beliefs. Caroline Ifeka (1978: personal communication) has also suggested that the belief in the commonality of the patrispirit amongst men and women can also form the basis of male and female dif ferentiation. In HOMO HIERACHICUS (1972) for example, Dumont shows that the Indian caste system must have some concept of unity in order to differentiate between the jatis.
worth a great deal of trouble and that her separation from the children is punishment enough. Children and the beliefs about the responsibilities and obligation of the mother, create a situation where the mother has to make the decision of eloping with another man and abandoning her children or remaining with her husband and retaining her children. A woman with children is responsible not only for herself but for the welfare of her children.
W O M EN'S RIG H TS VERSUS M EN'S GOALS
Collier (1976:89-96) argues that to examine women as political actors, they must be viewed within their particular cultural context. She perceives that almost every woman is under the authority of at least one man. Therefore, if women seek to attain their own power they must necessarily clash with men within the area of the use of legitimate power. By seeking their own demands, women can be in conflict with the goals of men.
Amongst the Walbiri, men tend to view women's political activities as idiosyncratic and the effect of women's inferiority. In addition, a woman's political activities can be seen to con flict with those people to whom she is bound by social obligation, close kin and affines. This is due to the fact that women are mainly involved with people within a domestic context. As such they use personal ties, which they have in common with other women and their male kin.
In addition, Collier, like Rosaldo (1 9 7 6 :3 6 ), perceives that there is a correlation between women's relative status and differentiation between domestic and political spheres. If this distinc tion is sharp, then the relative status of the women will be lower. If the distinction is blurred, then women will be able to involve themselves to a critically valuable extent in the political realm and their relative status will be higher. Earlier Sacks (1974:20 7-222), reworking the ideas of Engles' thesis (1891, See 1972) in the O R IG IN OF TH E F A M IL Y , P R IV A T E PRO PERTY A N D TH E STATE examined his ideas on the subordination of women. Engles argued in an evolutionary framework. His thesis stated that before the concept of property, men and women had equal status and production was within a large residential group. The smaller nuclear fam ily did not yet exist. Individual members of a household performed services and worked for the good of all household members, rather than for individuals or couples. The use of property by men for exchange and its implications for political maneouvering and the production of goods by women for use only within the family because perceived as separate, rather than com plementary. With the onset of the concepts of ownership and private property (controlled by men), the role and position of women was denigrated.
Sacks applied Engles' ideas to four African societies with agricultural economies, with classes and without classes. The interesting pattern that emerged from her study was that woman's relative status in society declined as their work became more domesticated and less
involved with the society as a whole.7 When individuals are involved in labour for society, Sacks calls them 'social adults' (1 9 7 4 :2 1 4 ). She stated:
I have suggested, then, that there are two aspects to women's position - women as social adults, and women as wives - and these can vary somewhat independently. What deter mines, how, or whether, women are regarded as adults is not the same thing as what determines their position vis-a-vis their husbands. Basically, women are social adults where they work collectively as part of a productive group larger than or separate from their domestic establishment' (1 974:21 8-219).
Amongst the Walbiri, as discussed earlier in this chapter, women's role and labour is sharply defined as belonging to the domestic sphere. Although women gather the bulk of the daily food, it is the food that men hunt that is used outside the domestic group. Sacks expands Engels' concept of social labour to 'include any work done (singly or as part of a group) for use or appropriation by someone of another household' (1 974:21 2). For this to make sense in terms of Walbiri society, I feel I must define 'social labour' in terms of what the people perceive it to be. There is no doubt that exclusively male ceremonies are considered the highest form of social labour by the Walbiri. Male ceremonies such as Gadjari and the Big Sunday complex are procrea tion rituals which guarantee that animals, plants and humans will be renewed. Basically, they ensure that the life giving essences left by dreamtime beings will continue to replenish the world. Thus the ceremonies practiced by men are for the good of society. Indeed, according to their belief system male rituals are essential for the continuance of Walbiri society (Meggitt 1974: 220). It is interesting to note that Walbiri men (especially the workers who assist the owners of any ceremony in the 'behind the scenes work') consider these ceremonies as hard work rather than entertainment. One Walbiri man commented: "This Big Sunday is a really im portant affair, and we working men must toil hard to follow the line properly" (Meggitt 1974:232).